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Minimum wage increases went into effect on January 1, 2014 in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and some other states. There are 10 states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) that have minimum wages that are linked to a consumer price index. Nevada adjusts the minimum wage in July and no change was made this year.
Here are the minimum wage increases for this year:
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. The last increase was in 2009. If an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages.
What do you think? Should minimum wage be raised?
Read More: How Much is Minimum Wage? | What is the Minimum Wage? | Minimum Wage Rates 2014 | Campaigns to Increase Minimum Wage
- August 4, 2013 at 5:08 pm(1) Tina says:
Yes it should be raised because the price of food and gas has increased. The cost of living has increased since 2009.
- August 5, 2013 at 12:21 pm(2) Sharee says:
Minimum wage should at least b $10 in all states. The cost of living stay being raised. But not the pay rates. So not fair
- August 7, 2013 at 2:15 am(3) curtis says:
Yes it should! Food ,gas,cost of living all have increase why are we still at 7.25? That's so unfair!!!
- August 7, 2013 at 8:56 am(4) kek says:
Yes, it should be raised because cost of living is getting to high. What about alabama, when are they getting their increse in minimum wage, I see everyone else on here.
- August 16, 2013 at 6:15 pm(5) cristina says:
Yes, it should be raised especially in new york city evv
Because the cost of living is higher here than
other states thats why most people have to resort
To government help like food stamps and heap.
- August 19, 2013 at 12:43 pm(6) Rob says:
I believe that it should be increase because it will give us a oppurtunity to take care of our family and also it probably help decrease crim rates
- August 19, 2013 at 3:17 pm(7) JIM ALLEN says:
- August 22, 2013 at 8:41 pm(8) Lakeisha larue says:
Because its not fair that the cost of living keep raisin but our pay don't how can we take care of our families that way
- August 26, 2013 at 3:47 pm(9) bignick says:
Yes minimum wage should be raised to ten dollars an hour starting January 2014 in all states
- August 29, 2013 at 11:31 am(10) marti says:
Why doesn't anyone ever talk about the fact that our service industry wage is $2.13 an hour? That price has not changed since min wage was $4.25 for everyone else.
- August 31, 2013 at 6:08 am(11) kim says:
A well-known retail chain pulled their business out of Las Vegas in Spring 2008, adding to the high unemployment rate here. This has made it easy for other retail companies with stores in Las Vegas to take advantage of the individuals who have been desperate to work. At least one well-known nationwide retailer who has stores in Las Vegas, NV is capitalizing on the current economic collapse. This company has had a minimum wage freeze intact since at least 2008 in Las Vegas. Non-management level workers are given schedules of 4 to 6 hours per shift, with sporadic weekly schedules. You never know how many hours or what days or shifts you will be working from one week to the next, as the posted schedules are constantly being modified. The best you can do if you need full time work is to avail yourself 7 days per week, open to close, and hope for at least 20-30 hours. You may not even be on the schedule a given week. You may be working 6 days per week on 4 to 6 hour shifts. Who has time to look for another job or plan an interview when you never know when you will be available to attend the interview. Maybe it's a way to keep the employees off balance, and keep them enslaved. This type of injustice just keeps people on unemployment instead of stimulating the economy. And sorry, no unpaid benefits, and black outs for days off that exceed the numbers of days in a year.
- September 1, 2013 at 12:01 pm(12) Stacey Mathews says:
The average worker should be rewarded for working. Most part time and some full time jobs don't ever include a pay raise. So when the cost of living increases, gas and food prices go up, individuals and families struggle to meet their requied expenses. Parents spend more time working and less time raising their kids because they have to have money to survive. Increasing the minimum wage will help the country and our economy. When people fall behind financially, our country as a whole suffers. Let's support a movement to help heal our country through better wages.
Minimize welfare and let's help to create a sense of pride in the American people!!!
- September 2, 2013 at 8:26 pm(13) john says:
texas you should raise the wages
- September 4, 2013 at 6:45 am(14) nick says:
I understand how business owners feel but they try to justify themselves with why minimum wage shouldn't go up I work in the fast food industry now bcuz I was laid off due to cut backs I've had a lot of fast food, retail ,custumer service ,security, experience from various chains but all management wants to pay is minimum wage unskilled my foot 2nd job my foot cost of living has been going up yr after yr and all those business owners don't want to pay you what your worth if you go in asking for to much on an interview you will hear these classic words ( we'll call you after we assess all the other applications) yeah right and they would rather hire inexperienced people because they are cheaper to pay than pay someone who knows what they are doing and this is popular among small and big businesses don't get me wrong most aren't like that but sure almost everyone here uunderstands what I'm talking about
- September 8, 2013 at 6:57 pm(15) Nene says:
Raise the minimum wage. Minimum wage needs to be tide with inflation. Everything going up but the paychecks. The only reason why the government refuse to up the minimum wage is because it would mean less greed for them. Businesses like McDonalds and Walmart can easily raise their minimum wage up a dollar or two. Greed will be mans down fall. We need to stick together and help each other out.
- September 10, 2013 at 3:41 am(16) Tim says:
I'm not a business owner, nor any specialists in any area of economics. But, I am smart enough to know that raising the minimum wage is what causes the need to raise minimum wage. It's a never ending circle. Raise the bottom line, and guess what, the cost of living goes up. Then next year, people complain that minimum wage is too low, yet again.
Minimum wage is for students and those who do not have to raise a family and choose not to educate themselves, nor gain skills necessary for a better paying job. I have skills and with the economy, raises are far and few. Minimum wage earners are catching up to my skilled wage due to all this hype that minimum wage needs to go up due to the cost of living.
If you wish to create a family (IE:Can't keep pants zipped up), then educate yourself and get some skills to get a higher paying job to support your desires in life. Too many people these days think it's a free ride mooching off the system. I know many that sit around and do nothing, collecting welfare and food stamps because they have 2-4 kids that they never had the means to support, but had to get busy in the bedroom.
Another reason raising minimum wage is a bad idea is because it creates a budget problem within a workplace. In order to offset the higher wages, what happens? People get laid off and those lucky enough to hold their jobs work harder to earn their paycheck. Unemployment goes up, the economy suffers, and we end up right where we've been the past decade.
Sorry, but I went to college, I earned my skills, I am WORTH MORE than minimum wage, therefore, I earn more then minimum wage. So, if you want to make more than minimum wage, make yourself worth more to a company. Get educated, get skills, get real. Life isn't going to hand you things. You need to work for them.
- September 13, 2013 at 12:30 pm(17) Chandra says:
I do understand some of your comments that raising the minimum wage would make other things go up. However, a lot of people that I see working at fast food restaurants and places like Wal-Mart are older people and people who have young kids to support. I do feel that there absolutely needs to be at least a cost of living increase. People who are on Social Security and Disability get a cost of living increase from time to time. Why shouldn't workers? Food, gas, insurance, utilities, and other necessities are going up every year. I feel it is only fair to those who truly work hard in this country to be compensated for their hard work. And yes, I agree that education is the key to making more money and having better opportunities; however, college is not for everyone. What about those people?
- September 13, 2013 at 1:10 pm(18) Donna says:
I agree that the minimum wage should be raised. My only problem with that is whenever minimum wage increases, the difference between it and my rate of pay shrinks.Effectively, I take a cut in pay. When minimum wage goes up all other wages should go up proportionately, otherwise before long I will be working for minimum wage.
- September 17, 2013 at 7:34 am(19) Andrew says:
Here's something to think about …
"Who makes more — A. or B. …?
A. A single mother, with 2 children, earning $30,000 / year is NOT eligible for food stamps, and, also, is NOT eligible for "earned-income credit" on her tax return…
B. A single-mother, with 2 children, earning $22,000 / year will be eligible for between $400-$500 / per month in food stamps, and be eligible for "earned-income credit"… generating a credit ranging between $6500-$8000…
- September 17, 2013 at 8:01 am(20) Andrew says:
Replace "single-mother" with "married-couple" …
A "single-mother" would receive between $3500-$4500 in "earned-income-credit" on her tax return…
- September 18, 2013 at 12:13 pm(21) Anne says:
Everyone would like to see the minimum wage increased. But, there's more in question than that. If minimum wage goes up to $10, what will happen to the person who is now earning $10? He/she will want an increase and on and on it will go. All wages will go up. Sounds good BUT, with the cost of wages being increased, the cost of products will also be increased – companies can't afford not to try to earn back what they're losing with those increased wages. So now we're back where we started, we'll have higher wages but also higher cost of living. I don't know what the answer is, I just don't see increase the minimum wage will accomplish what we want it to.
- September 19, 2013 at 10:15 pm(22) Tammy says:
Min wage increase will only make everything we buy go up in price and there will be less jobs. LOOK around, there are already less lanes open at the stores,
- September 20, 2013 at 8:41 am(23) beckyfear says:
Yes the minimum wage should be increased but when it is the cost of gas, food and other items will increase to cover the wage increase. Social Security and other retirement funds should also increase, it cost the elderly just as much to live as it does the working class!!
- September 25, 2013 at 12:11 am(24) NO! says:
I can't believe there are people that think it should go up to $10 all of a sudden. It will kill full time jobs. Employers are NOT going to pay a minimum wage worker over time. How much do you plan on paying for your fast food burger? Do you think stores aren't going to pass the cost onto the consumer. The minimum wage increases but guess what… federal income brackets do not. Minimum wage will increase in order to get people off the system. Want to make money? Stay in school and get a Bachelor or Masters don't depend on what high school kids make. Be the politician that really works for the people.
- September 25, 2013 at 12:29 pm(25) Catina says:
Yes minimum wages should increase. I work hard each and everyday but I'm living paycheck to paycheck.
- September 27, 2013 at 11:26 pm(26) Josie says:
No Duh it should be raised think about it we all work for minimum wage and we all barely make it by, I live in Montana and I bust my ass for the 7.80 an hour just to barely make it by living expenses have gone up a lot since 2009 so yeah the minimum wage should be raised to AT LEAST $9.00 an hour.
- October 8, 2013 at 3:21 pm(27) Memory says:
Ive noticed that in my job everyone is so dismotivated to work because they get paid too little and get only 16 hours a week. Its ridiculous. I am lucky i still get 25 hours because they need me there 6 days a week. But my job is already hiring part timers because they dont want to give benefits to full timers. When they hire new part times with no experience those part timers have to be trained by other part timers with experience, the thing is that many of the jobs where i work are hard and the new part timers mess up alot or are not able to learn everything in the 2 weeks of training. Causing them to get fired quickly. Its a disaster. I think the minimum wage needs to be raised soon. I cant survive with 7.25.
- October 15, 2013 at 7:30 am(28) Laura says:
Wow. I can't believe people are blaming workers who make minimum wage for prices going up. The cost of living increase and rate of inflation are natural results of our economy. They are very real and have real effects on folks who have to work harder and make do with less just to get by because that money is going "somewhere". On the one hand, we tell people, "don't take a hand out, go get a job", then with the other side of our mouth we say "minimum wage jobs are for students and part-time workers" so they shouldn't be expected to be able to support a family on it. It's ridiculous. You cannot have it both ways. The sad reality is that our economy has forced people who need to support family into minimum wage jobs and that a larger and larger percentage of the available jobs that are even available are only minimum wage.
Look to where the blame truly falls, not on the workers, but the coporations that have been increasing the number of minimum wage jobs out there by decreaing the number of fairly paid jobs. Who successfully, year after year, lobby to keep the wage where it is despite the significant cost of living and rate of inflation. If minimum wage were increased with inflation each year (not even including cost of living adjustments), it would actually be $10.75 today!!! (compared to 1.60 in 1968) So, if everything else is higher and the money is out there somewhere, where is that difference going? To CEO's and corporate fat cats who love it when the rest of us idiots fight/hate on each other instead of learning a little something…just sayin'
- October 24, 2013 at 1:00 pm(29) Joe says:
There should be no minimum wage at all. Let the free market determine wages just like everything else. Bust the unions too while we're at it and have a true free and competitive marketplace.
- November 6, 2013 at 12:30 pm(30) bruce champagne says:
Here in Washington state its nearly impossible to live making anything less than $15 an hour. Especially if you have a family. I've worked construction for 20 year's making $20-25 hour. With a family of 4 we still lived paycheck to paycheck. Because I made to much to qualify for any programs, including going back to school,high daycare costs, high living costs. I couldn't imagine being able to support a family making minimum wage.
- November 9, 2013 at 3:30 am(31) JACOB says:
First things first, raise the minimum wage.
Next, yes increasing minimum wage causes cost of living to go up. But the answer to this problem is NOT to NOT raise the minimum wage. Each year the cost of living goes up, regardless if wages do or not. So why is this? Well the people who control the cost of living (ie. landlords, tax collectors, oil companies, electric companies) think they need more money to pocket. They do this by increasing the cost of everyday commodities we need to survive (ie. food, gas, utilities, rent).
So what is the answer?
ANSWER: Raise the minimum wage for the workforce, and make it so employers cannot have the ability to raise the cost of commodities until after the minimum wage has matched inflation. CAP the cost of gasoline, force landlords to not have the ability to raise rent on any leases starting from the date of the bill signing, etc.
Yes the rich take a pay cut…. But they can afford to do it at the benefit of the other 85% of the workforce who are the ones who actually run their business.
In the end this will cause the middle class to be revived, the economy to spur, businesses to increase revenue(since the middle class will have money to spend), and the number of people on food stamps and welfare to drop (exponentially).
- November 13, 2013 at 9:16 am(32) evelyn scharff says:
I think min wage should be 10.00 – 11.00. I beleive that being single rent is high foof is high and medical costs and gas as well as public transportation. I was making 11.00 and still cant make it my rent is about what I take home in pay.. I cant eat either at times and I cant get insurance
- November 13, 2013 at 5:25 pm(33) Ernest says:
You liberals keep voting for higher taxes, yet complain about minimum wages… When taxes go up (especially for big businesses), the cost of living goes up to adjust to the higher taxes. Liberal's idea that higher taxes on big businesses only effects the big businesses, is just ignorant thinking. All big businesses do is raise the price of their product and/or services, and we the consumers end up paying their (BB's) taxes. The only group that is being hurt by raising taxes, is us (the consumers). So when you praise higher minimum wages, you are just feeding the whole cost of living increase. Just like taxes on the big business, the minimum wage increase only hurts the small business and the consumers with higher prices and higher cost of living. Raising Taxes, and raising Minimum Wages does NOT help ANYONE PERIOD!
- November 14, 2013 at 9:32 am(34) Stauch says:
So much about a min. wage what about a livable wage 17.00 might do it . problem is it might take 2 jobs . you know what you call a Vermonter with 2 jobs………..under employed
- November 21, 2013 at 8:19 am(35) James says:
I work part time at minimum wage and I don't think minimum wage should be raised. People on here complaining about cost of living going up. But the whole reason cost of living goes up is largely driven by minimum wage rising.
If you don't believe me you can go look at trends between price of goods and what minimum wage was increased to.
It also makes logical sense that if minimum wage goes up the price of everything will go up just so business with many minimum wage workers can afford to stay in business.
Yes more money is great to have, but think about how inflated it will be and you will realize nothing has changed for you, you will still be struggling to live alone off a single income, but now you will make it harder on the people who aren't affected by minimum wage going up.
- November 23, 2013 at 2:07 am(36) KSR says:
Does no one realize that every time Minimum Wage is increased the cost of living goes up BECAUSE minimum wage was increased? Big Business is NEVER going to let their profit margins decrease, therefor every time they have to spend more money to pay their staff, they will raise the rates of their products and services to make up the difference, meaning raising minimum wage, CAUSES inflation.
The problem is that as minimum wage is increased, the salaries of those who make more than mimim wage are not, which means that as the minimum wage is raised, the income of those who make more money becomes devalued and they actually make LESS money than they did before the minimum wage increase..
Minimum wage goes up. Prices go up. Higher salaries stay the same. The value of the American dollar goes down.
Raising Minimum Wage CAUSES inflation, therefor, minimum wage should NOT be increased!
- November 23, 2013 at 6:42 am(37) Amo72 says:
Yes, the federal minimum wage needs to be raised. It has not been raised in almost 4 years. People are saying that raising the minimum wage will make the cost of living go up. It hasn't been raised in almost 4 years, yet guess what, the cost of living has gone up. The cost of living goes up regardless of minimum wage going up. Corporations that are against the minimum wage going up, like McDonald's and Walmart, etc. make billions of dollars in revenue each year. They can certainly afford to pay their employees a dollar or two more per hour. They are all just greedy!!!
- November 26, 2013 at 4:38 pm(38) luis says:
Are u kidding me.the people of this country is working just to make it or not to make it.minimum wages should of went up a long time ago.we can't pay pills and pay for food that is so high.everything went up except wages.people are loseing everthing.RAISE THE
- December 5, 2013 at 5:02 am(39) Josh says:
Midwest and Southern states should be $10 an hr.
New York, California and Hawaii should be $15 hr. or more
- December 5, 2013 at 4:40 pm(40) ty says:
i think so too. like most of the commenters said, the price of food, gas and livimg is raising so should minimum wage too.
- December 6, 2013 at 10:52 am(41) Cheri says:
Heck yes, minium wage definitately needs to be raised! I live in AL and I'm responsible for my own health insurance, which I'm having to drop because I cannot afford $400 a month out of my measly $1022.20 check per month! Something has got to change!!!
- December 7, 2013 at 12:18 pm(42) teresa says:
I think the minium wage should be raised I live in texas and I am a single mom working for 7.25 an hr 40 hrs a week and still cant make it everything is going up like the cost of living and food and etc. I just cant do it anymore
- December 9, 2013 at 11:04 am(43) Michael says:
IF you have the capacity, remember this is an ENTRY level wage. Want to make more, learn more, apply it MORE. Then it is a free country, if you are not paid more, move on.
- December 9, 2013 at 12:40 pm(44) Joe says:
Absolutely NOT. It's a slap in the face for the people who have actually earned their wages.
Minimum work equals minimum wage. If we are going to increase it, lets be fair and increase everyone's wages by the same percent, not just raise the wages for the minimal work needed to survive. And if we raise it by the same percentage, there is no need to raise anything, therefore no wages should be increased.
Increasing minimum wage only increases the cost of living, so prices would just go up and we are stuck in the same boat.
Get a roommate or 6, get rid of cable, and that second-third-fourth TV. Get rid of your sense of entitlement and earn more if you want more.
- December 10, 2013 at 3:34 pm(45) Betty says:
When the minimum wage goes up then the cost of all items goes up as well. What has anyone accomplished? Those making minimum wage will still only be able to buy the same amount of products that they did prior to the increase.
For those making more than minimum wage unless their salaries are increase the same amount as the increase of the minimum wage, then they are able to buy less.
- December 10, 2013 at 6:27 pm(46) JJarquin says:
I say the minimum wage should go up at least another 2 bucks. There is no way to live off of this crap. All of you that think it shouldn't go up, I bet you never had to work an honest day in your life. Skills are one thing, but come on!? I've seen people do way less for more pay and we are all working hard so we can all see a check that doesn't even come close to what others make. Make minimum wage go up and I guarantee that more skilled workers will come out of it. If you don't feel this way I hope the next time you go to a fast food joint you serve yourself and tell the employees there that they are doing the minimum performance required for their menial tasks and I'd like to see the kind of looks you get.
- December 12, 2013 at 2:08 am(47) Michael says:
Minimum wage should be 10 dollars for the entire country. $7.25 isn't *** after taxes. And I don't believe in unskilled workers. Every job requires a skill. And maybe more people could obtain skills/education if they made a decent wage and could afford to attend some type of higher learning.
- December 17, 2013 at 6:14 pm(48) Greg says:
I think it should be even higher than $10.00 per. hr. How can you live if rent is $650 or more? Groceries are crazy, insurance, clothes.
- December 18, 2013 at 1:14 am(49) abby says:
If everyone is so worried about the raise in a raise,then maybe its time to decrease the cost of everything else. I have 4 adults and 2 kids in my house. 1 in college,1 working until spring semester.and both make virtually nothing. Onechild is in diapers and the other in 1st grade. at the moment we have no food…you tell me…where is the problem that we have to live like a pack of wolves to survive.
- December 18, 2013 at 12:55 pm(50) Jenny says:
Do you people understand if the companies have to pay more for employees? Then they have to raise prices to afford it. Then what do you have hire prices and hires wages, but in the end you don't gain anything, except pay more taxes to the government.
- December 19, 2013 at 9:53 am(51) logan says:
Im doing my senior project on this topic and i've got to say that this topic is way to overlooked. When i first picked it out it was really boring but now seeing the marks it leaves on people and businesses it make a big deal the government does not care about this because all the people working for it get major pay and do not see the reason for a wage raise. All we need is more support from everyone! The reason for the last $15 strike for mcdonalds and others, there goal was not $15 yes that would be great but they did it so they would raise the wage to $10. by doing this it would shut the employes up and look now they had almost a $3 wage rase. Again this topic is way to overlooked and i hope to see the wages go up for everyone.
- December 22, 2013 at 5:14 pm(52) Super Smart guy says:
50% of all people make below the average pay rate!
We need to raise the minimum wage so everyone can make above average!
- December 22, 2013 at 5:46 pm(53) Misspretty says:
You know what, all these businesses pulling in Millions of dollars some that have Billion dollars comming in where CEO's get 9 million dollar bonus and their crying about the little peanuts being raised for minimum wage. How greedy. You make people do back bracking work where they stand all day with the little tiny breaks in between and put in place stupid work place rules like adults are little kids with all the bull of politics that go on in the work place and wonder why we want better wages. Now you slick business owners go around that with you fancy cars and 200 hundred dollar houses. I can't even get the work place to help with childcare. Especially when it calls for overtime. You CEO need to see the big picture and stop thinking of yourself. If you have a well paid work, you would have a happy and more productive worker who would enjoy comming to work and who would do more of a good job for you. Think about it.
- December 23, 2013 at 2:35 pm(54) Stuart says:
They government has mandated child labor laws, osha safety regulations, anti sweat shop laws, overtime and now Obamacare.
Some of these things have elevated the American workplace conditions to humane standards, something we should all be proud of.
But, these all do take a toll on the Employer profits. Minimum wage is an item that should not be guided by the government. The marketplace, competition amount Employers and potential employees would make the system work without government intervention. Not only should the government not raise MW, but the MW law should not exist in the first place.
- December 23, 2013 at 4:37 pm(55) Shelly says:
If the minimum wage increases, small businesses just have to raise their prices to be able to pay their employees. Most small businesses biggest expense IS their employees.
- December 23, 2013 at 11:02 pm(56) Corey says:
No, minimum wage should not be raised. Yes prices have gone up on numerous things but an increase on minimum wage will only increase the cost of everything else.
- December 26, 2013 at 2:47 pm(57) Unimpressed says:
The cost of everything has increased. Minumum wage has not increased but pay wages at jobs that require skill, education, or hard labor has increased with the cost of living. Therefore, if you want more money, take on a harder job. You get what you work for. I did not go to college for 4 years and work pipelining along with minimum wage jobs through all of it so I could graduate with certifications on the side and make less that some sorry sap that hasn't even tried to better himself.
- December 27, 2013 at 11:25 pm(58) w says:
The reason why cost of living has gone up is because minimum wage has gone up. Upping the min. Wage is pointless. If you've been to college and taken an economics class you know that raising the min wage only causes prices to go up and unskilled labor to be replaced by machines. Which creates a bigger problem for unskilled workers.
The reason you don't get paid more to flip burgers is because every one can flip burgers, there are 7 billion burger flippers in the world. Its the same reason why gold is worth more than sand. There's a bunch of sand and very little gold. Bunches of burger flippers very few brain surgeons. Sorry but you're the sand in this story.
I'm sorry you can't afford the life you want and you have kids to feed. Maybe you should have planned ahead and not had a bunch of kids till you could afford them. Duh.
- December 28, 2013 at 11:51 am(59) Chuck says:
Minimum wage is too high. It should be lowered or eliminated. Uneducated and unskilled workers don't deserve minimum wage.
- December 29, 2013 at 1:06 pm(60) p3t says:
In Oregon Minimum wage is $8.80 going up to $9.10 in January. Small business is going out of business or not hiring due to it, that's why we have a huge Walmart in our little town of 16,000 people.
- December 29, 2013 at 11:49 pm(61) Jackie says:
Ok folks, I'm a 55 yr old female who does home healthcare at 20.5 hrs/ week for a living. Just how in your infinite wisdom, am I expected to make a living for my husband (who by the way is disabled and receiving disability such as it is) and myself. I make too much to be on welfare and receive medicaid insurance. Who are we kidding, I don't have minor kids living with me anymore, so I couldn't get medicaid anyway. I don't make enough to pay monthly insurance cost from any insurance agency which means, I'm gong to be fined for not having insurance in the first place. (A CATCH 22 SITUATION) All this means I just work to buy gas to get back and forth to work each week!!! (WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE)!!!! Everyone says go back to school, I'm drowning in student loan debt now and can't pay it back!! ANY SUGGESTIONS?!?!?!?!
- December 30, 2013 at 5:00 pm(62) Autumn says:
Hey, keep in mind if minimum wage does go up, everyone will have that extra money to get that little bit extra more food. Or whatever. With the way the damn country is everyone will spend down to their very last dollar…so really, more profits too (:
- January 1, 2014 at 11:23 am(63) mama mia says:
unfortunately raising minimum wage won't do much good…its a trickle effect. Employers pay more to employees so now they must inctrease their prices, so now food prices will increase, products(clothing, cars, paper goods, etc) will increase, housing prices increase…..people making minimum wage will always be just that unless they get a raise…..that doesn't effect everyone..
- January 1, 2014 at 9:25 pm(64) Gayle says:
Wow I've worked my whole life. Great jobs. Last one was federal. I am now on disability. I make For a 40hrs. a week 50¢ more . Its just myself.Poor people trying to raise a family. Id like to know how. I can't just for me.
- January 1, 2014 at 9:33 pm(65) Brick says:
The cost of living with welfare an wic an the other struggles should be raised to 22hr
That would make things easy for people to love who are poor an then the good stamps can lessened
Do the math a burger is 8 dollars now
And out average gas 4-5 per gallon
22hr for minimum wage means
We can now spend money on the gas an help their greedy asses
An the food can be bought so all the stores flourish
An indeed can we spend in the bars an restaurants an the economy will be in a surplus of greater than now
Even if they raise to 15 an hr
That's average 3 after tax a month
Most families cant support on that let alone live
Without help
If the dumbass gov wants to us off their back
Pay is the money we deserve to live when we are just literally paying to die anyways
- January 2, 2014 at 1:01 am(66) Sam says:
While I agree with a lot of the statements of increase of min wage = increase of living, I don't agree with the comments of people saying that ALL people working minimum wage jobs don't have an education. I actually work at a minimum wage position and I have 2 bachelor degrees, and cannot find a job in either field!! I spent all that time Nd money to get those degrees and can't even pay all my bills on time. And when I went to apply for food stamps, I was told I could have $16/month because I don't have a million kids!! I work hard at minimum wage job, I have to take crap from all you people at your fancy jobs, and believe me, that is hard work! So shame on you for treating that walmart cashier or mcdonalds worker like you are better than them and therefore should earn more, because I am one I them and you are no better than I am!!
- January 2, 2014 at 11:37 pm(67) keara says:
YES! So what you are saying that people who went and furthered their education should get paid more because they were able to go to school . People who work for minimum wages does way more just to say they made it . The country as a whole scares me , there is no hope because thays a selfish thing to have embedded in yourminds.
- January 3, 2014 at 7:03 am(68) SARAHP says:
I called MARVIN on Tuesday, December 28th… I was told my money would be issued the next business day… Was expecting to get paid today… But I did not… Should I not expect the money even though I was told it'd be issued to me the next business day?
- January 3, 2014 at 12:39 pm(69) evelyn says:
What a shame! I can't even imagine living on that wage. How do people pay rent or mortgage? How do they purchase clothes and shoes for their family? I guess they never can go to the doctor or dentist. I'm sure my dog gets treaty better than those unfortunate people. I guess if you work in a fast food business or lawn workers, you,re looked down on because you don't qualify as a specialist in that field. Someday soon there will be the rich and the slaves. It seems it's just around the corner. My heart goes out to the less fortunate. God Bless them!
- January 4, 2014 at 11:07 am(70) Marv says:
Scrap the min wage and replace it with mandatory minimum percentage increases for all.
- January 5, 2014 at 5:49 pm(71) Sammie McNeal Jr. says:
Yes, the minimun wage should be increased the cost of living demands it, by the way ithe minimun wage did not keep pace with the cost of living and productivity going back to (1960). The minimun wage should be $22.00 dollars an hour, an annul income of $45.000 thousand dollars a year.
With that said, America can abolish the wellfare system if the business community and our Government officials would negoiate and compromise the matter it could be better for all Americans!!!
Agiaan, the minimun wage should be increased Americans has the right to have more than a desire, they have the right to demand; if they would there is a good chance it may happen.
Come on America get busy!!!
- January 5, 2014 at 10:14 pm(72) Stephanie says:
Yes it should at least be 10 a hour you cannot live off 7.40 the cost of living is high, gas, food and trying to maintain your family is impossible.
- January 5, 2014 at 11:37 pm(73) steve says:
If the government really wanted to increase your "buying power" they would exempt anybody that is not making a living wage from taxes. Any increase in the minimum wage proportionately effects all other wage earners. Effectively decreasing the "buying power" of all (except for the 1% of course). All mandatory minimum wage increases do is broaden government tax bases. You will make more and get less.
- January 8, 2014 at 12:18 pm(74) Madeline says:
I think we should have our minimum wage increased cause we do not work full time and we work as hard as a full time employee but in only 5 to 6 hours.
while they have time to chat and be on the phone or on there cell phone on company time.
I am a single mom with only one child and no help from the government at all. I also have two jobs and no time for my son!!!! I also have experience as a senior accountant (11 years in the same company) and I do not have a master or bachelor degree and if I have it I will still get pay as a regular employee and not get pay as a master or bachelor degree associate. I think that it is not fair we have executive that sit and do nothing will we do all the work and they get the promotion and increase on salary and we get NOTHING!!!!!! How is that going to help anyone in life. I made my mistake and corrected it while other continue to have more kids and live off the government!!!! How not so FAIR please see those who really need the help and those who are using the government for them not to work.
- January 8, 2014 at 12:31 pm(75) Concerned says:
I understand how everyone feels about minimum wage. I own a very small business with 7 employees counting my self. Unfortunately the economy and the effects of the economy have caused my business as well as other small businesses difficulties in making it. I do not pay minimum wage to any of my employees but I can not afford to pay all of them $10.00 per hour. I have provided a service to my community for the past twelve years and have only increased my prices 3 times. If minimum wage increases I will not go up on my prices again because people are already having a difficult time paying their fees. I will have no option but to let someone go. I am afraid that I am not the only one whom will respond in the same manner. If you pay $8.00 per hour and minimum wage goes up to $9.00 per hour and you have 6 employees that is an increase of $6.00 per hour on 40 hours that is $240.00 a week. or $960.00 per month. That may not sound like a lot to some people but when you have a very small company and cannot increase your rates where is the money to come from? If you let one person go you will save $50.00 per week even with the increase. Please understand we want to pay employees more. Once again I do not pay minimum wage but I also do not pay all my employees $10.00 per hour. I hope everyone understands either people will let employees go are prices will be increased. Small business will have no options.
- January 8, 2014 at 12:34 pm(76) Madeline says:
I think we deserve to get our minimum raised we work as hard as those who have executive position and don't know how to do the work. I have worked for Fortis College in Miami started as a receptionist and was promoted to Business Office Asst for 11 years doing senior accountant and also doing month end closing for the school and customer service for all students (853) due to the economic I was laid-off just because we had no students that can get financial aid and I had no choice but to moved to Orlando. Where I applied at Everest college and Polk state college having the experience I have in the school as a Student accountant and Business office experience the job has been under review since 07/24/2013 to the present. ( Even if I have the Master or Bachelor I am not getting paid for the degree) I am now working in a store getting only 19 to 20 hours per week and no more how do I survive. This is why or credit score get all messed up cause we cant afford it no MORE. So Yes please help us increase or minimum wages so that we can SURVIVE in the UNITED STATES that we was born in.
- January 8, 2014 at 12:35 pm(77) YES says:
I think we deserve to get our minimum raised we work as hard as those who have executive position and don't know how to do the work. I have worked for Fortis College in Miami started as a receptionist and was promoted to Business Office Asst for 11 years doing senior accountant and also doing month end closing for the school and customer service for all students (853) due to the economic I was laid-off just because we had no students that can get financial aid and I had no choice but to moved to Orlando. Where I applied at Everest college and Polk state college having the experience I have in the school as a Student accountant and Business office experience the job has been under review since 07/24/2013 to the present. ( Even if I have the Master or Bachelor I am not getting paid for the degree) I am now working in a store getting only 19 to 20 hours per week and no more how do I survive. This is why or credit score get all messed up cause we cant afford it no MORE. So Yes please help us increase or minimum wages so that we can SURVIVE in the UNITED STATES that we was born in.
- January 9, 2014 at 12:22 pm(78) Stella says:
YES!!! I am tired of paying my kids Car Insurance. Kids today can not get ahead with the rising cost of Health Insurance, Student loans, Car payments. The more these High-end deductible Health Insurances come into play, the more I – as a parent must step up an help my kids just to keep their heads above water.
- January 12, 2014 at 3:56 pm(79) Morty21 says:
If minimum wage is increased then every salary should be effected. Those with schooling, technical education, higher education, and that are more skilled should get higher salaries as well. The minimum is established to establish hierarchy in the economy, raise that and all others should follow. CNA and EMT get as low as $12/hr….they have more education and experience than an avaerage fast food worker with no other education but high school yet they will only get paid $2 more. I agree the minimum should be raised but as that standard is set every other salary should be raised as well. Higher skills and education have earned the right to a higher salary as well as those getting paid minimum due to the cost of living increases. If you just raise minimum wage and the others do not follow seems unfair to punish those that have more skills and education; all the salaries need to be affected.
- January 21, 2014 at 8:18 pm(80) Anita Simpson says:
Without a doubt minimum wage should be raised how cacan you survive making 7.25 that's ridiculous as much a NVEnergy is here thats your whole check.Food isn't cheap here and with all the cards you need here you have to have money to get a job here never seen such a state that's not together.The this state is ran its like its just being discovered with all the tourist $ this state recieves its no way this state should be broke..say new government all this state cares about is the Strip not the people.Really needs some work its very very unfair this is illegal no state minimum wage should be under 9 dollars it's 2014
- January 25, 2014 at 6:40 pm(81) que says:
Yes not only has everything went up like everyone has stated but esp. Cause the force of health ins. Or be subject to fine so yes def. It does
- January 27, 2014 at 1:53 pm(82) Roy says:
What gives any of you the right to call other people. Moochers? You havent the slightest clue what others go through. Some people arent born into families with money. There are people that start out their adult lives with absolutely nothing. Its very difficult to go back to school when youre working a full time job and a second job just to make ends meet. Not everyone has someone taking care of them while they go to school. I have plenty of skills, i work in the medical field, making just a little more than minimum wage. I plan to go back to school to become a practioner in my field. I dont have any family around to help me with anything, and i dont ask for help from anyone. Including the govenment. Dont assume people are unskilled, or moochers when you dont know all the facts. I dont know how i will pay my bills, and take care of school on what i make. Minimum wage in my opinion should go up.
- January 28, 2014 at 8:44 am(83) TRISTIAN says:
- January 28, 2014 at 11:40 am(84) Art says:
When are people going to realize that increasing minimum wage does nothing to help anyone. I manage a small business, and we start all employees out at $8.00 because I would not want to make any one feel they are only being paid what we HAVE to pay them, however, I work in a business that our rates are being cut all the time and even at $8.00 er hour it is difficult to make payroll. Our Pay rates go from $8.00 to $17.00 per hour depending on position. If minimum wage is raised more then likely we will either downsize and eliminate many posistions, or cut hours and eliminate full time workers, or in the worst case close our doors which would leave near twenty people our of work completely. I do not see how this helps anyone.
When minimum wage is increased every thing else we buy will be likewise increase. Fast food restaurants will have to increase the cost of their selections, other grocery and food items will have to have price increases, in truth everything we buy will have to have a price increase. While your paycheck, if you still get one, may have a higher per hour rate, your hours may be decreased and what you purchase will cost more effectively making the wage increase ineffective. Please someone explain to me why no one seems to understand basic economics.
I am sure I am not in the only business that raising our rates in not possible, so we can not accomodate a higher minimum wage. I truly believe that If this rate goes up, I will be out of a job and because of health reasons finding another job will be difficult or impossible, so this does scare me. I have never agreed with our governent controlling ever aspect of our lives, however, it seems now the people overwhelmingly are willing to become slaves to our government.
- January 28, 2014 at 11:40 am(85) Art says:
No one should be able to tell me what I have to spend my money on, nor should they be able to tell me how much I have to pay someone. If you want to make more per hour, then increase your value. Have you paid attention to many cashiers or fast food workers. Many cannot get your order right, many could not calculate change on thier own, yet we should pay them just because they take up space. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying all of them, I am saying many of them. If you are one who is good at your job and worth more then make it known or go somewhere where they will appreaciate your hard work and knoweldge, do not depend on your government to ask or rather demand a raise for you.
- January 28, 2014 at 5:41 pm(86) adam says:
no it shouldn't be raised I am a logger in Tennessee and I work really hard for what I get which is quit a bit more than the min but its like this is you was to make more money other than min wage then go out and get the training to make that kind of money u cant expect to have no skills and make what people with skills do it just will not work all it would do is cause a company to hire less workers than they would have had the min wage not been raised get a career people stop looking for someone to just hand it to you
- January 28, 2014 at 5:43 pm(87) Alison Doyle, About.com Job Search Expert says:
Happening Now: Unemployed workers came to Capitol Hill today to tell their story and urge Congress to renew unemployment insurance.
Watch live: http://1.usa.gov/1f9diQi
- January 29, 2014 at 7:18 pm(88) restarauntowner says:
I own fast food restaurant and currently have 7 employees. When we just opened it was just my wife and I with two other employees. I am proud to be able to provide jobs for unskilled people that have a hard time finding employment else where. A couple of my employees are known felons but I gave them a shot and they have been with me for over a year with no problems. All of my employees are paid above minimum because they have been with me at least one year. Between $9-$15/hour according to years with restaurant. Now once minimum wage is increased i am sure they will also demand a raise in there wages as well. But guess what? We are prepared to lay off next person requesting a raise and going back to working 70-80 hours a week if we have to. We are living comfortably right now but we are not making as much money as some people think that we are. Point is I dont think increasing minimum wage will solve any problems that we are having with this economy. How can you pay someone with no skill are talent as much as skilled workers. Now those workers with get raise also and now all businesses will have to change their pricing and we'll be right at square one. To all of you complaining that you can't survive on minimum wage, you should have stayed in school and learned a trade if you want to make more money. 0
- January 29, 2014 at 7:33 pm(89) bullshit says:
I live in small town in Texas and some people with associates degrees only start off at $10/hour. So why should all these slackers that decided that they were too good to stay in school make as much as people with degrees and training. Most fast food joints are young people trying to put themselves through school. If you decided that you are gonna flip burger or dig ditches the rest of your life than don't expect uncle sam to hold your hands. There should be no minimum wage period. I vote to wipe out minimum wage all together.
I own restaurant and currently have 7 employees making between $9-15/hour according to experience. When minimum wage goes up I am sure that my employees will also demand an increase in pay. I am prepared to lay off next person to demand pay raise. Time to get my hands dirty again i guess. Point is I believe lots of jobs will be lost.
- January 29, 2014 at 7:39 pm(90) pissedoff says:
Government wants to regulate something. They need to look at the oil companies charging $3-$4 for gas. Why cant they regulate that. Oil companies are posting record earning every quarter while robbing everybody blind and government does nothing cause im sure majority of people making decisions have stocks in those companies. Gas prices go down so will everything else. our government is a joke.
- January 29, 2014 at 11:36 pm(91) TJ says:
I live in Iowa..minimum wage is 7.25hr….average rent for a 3 bedroom home will run somewhere around $900 (if your lucky) to $1500 or more take 7.25 times 40hrs per week that's $290.00 a week before taxes and you are a single mom of three children with no child support…..I don't know about you but is this picture getting any clearer???? God help us all111
- February 4, 2014 at 3:02 pm(92) Justin says:
Minimum wage should stay exactly where it is. People keep saying that these companies have millions/billions of dollars to pay their employees right. Well guess what, most of the companies paying a minimum wage are paying for unskilled workers. I can go to McDonald's right now and learn how to perform any job in less than an hour. It require no necessary skill or higher brain function. These jobs are not meant to be careers! By raising the minimum wage we would only inflame the problem. The best answer is to become proficient in a particular skill set and get an education. As for people saying college isn't for everyone, no college isn't for lazy people. I worked very hard to get where I am making 13 an hour through experience and an education. By raising the minimum wage to 10 dollars, the gap between a skilled laborer like me and an unskilled laborer is closing. At this rate, within 5 years I will be better off getting a job at McDonald's.
- February 5, 2014 at 2:52 pm(93) sheila says:
no it should not be increased…i went to school to get certified, I make 14.00 dollars an hour…so now we increase it to 10 for fast food workers, etc…absolutetly not!…dont have kids, and get an education…this is not a free handout!
- February 8, 2014 at 2:44 am(94) daniel pace says:
yes, however i will say that many of the comments are based on opinion and not fact. some say colledge is the way to go. not all have the money to pay the colledge fee. some are already from poor families and do not have the funds to get a chance to be better. i started 7.45 an hour and lived with my parents. at times my dad made 14.00hr and still we strugled. my mom worked too. so now we get to the real problem. how to balance moderation with your pay. most people live in excess and cant do this. they simply dont know how. my pay at 14.00hr came after 8yrs of the same continuos job, house keeping. a job people look down on. i have no diploma and only a high school education. all i see are people who dont have the basic knowledge on how to moderate ones income and liveing expenses. moderation, that is what it takes.
- February 12, 2014 at 9:42 am(95) Betty Jane says:
If minimum wage is increased it should be for all states. People now a days cannot make there bills on what they make. Increase minimum wage for everyone. We pay taxes on the money so give us a break.
- February 18, 2014 at 2:35 am(96) Crysta says:
To those of you "economists" who think you understand everything: you don't.
I'm young, in my senior year of high school. I worked at McDonald's for almost a year, at $7.50 an hour. As if balancing school, a social life, and work wasn't hard enough, I was having family problems too. I was forced to quit my job to take care of my younger sister when my mom was placed in the hospital for over a month.
Currently, I'm unemployed, and desperately trying to find a decent paying job for a 17 year old. In all honesty, I did work hard, a lot harder than I ever expected to at McDonalds, and I didn't just spend hundreds of dollars shopping. I saved up, and paid for all of my own college applications and SAT tests, putting gas in my car, and buying things that I need (not want). It adds up very quick, and before I knew it, my savings was gone.
If I'm having problems providing for myself now, under my parent's roof, how am I supposed to be able to support myself on minimum wage in college?
I understand that the cost of living is high, and that increasing minimum wage could make it even higher, but let's face it: it was going up anyway.
Is it fair that so many students, trying to get an education and have a better future, will struggle to make ends meet? That single parents will raise an underprivileged child, and work long, hard hours just to meet basic needs?
The answer is no. It's not okay. America is known for being the land of the opportunity, I was taught that since kindergarten, but no one ever told me that opportunity comes with a pretty large price tag. A price tag that I, and many other hard working Americans, can't afford.
- February 20, 2014 at 2:12 pm(97) trishi says:
I think they need to raise peoples salaries that don't get paid per hour also. Everyone else's pay goes up and people who get paid salary pay or paid by the job they do don't get anything.
- February 23, 2014 at 7:48 pm(98) Betty Jane says:
I am working at a Personal care facility and busting my but everyday for minimum wage. The politicians are sitting on there but collecting very large salaries. Minimum wage needs to be increased. everything else has gone up, there are no cost of living increases and people are struggling. Why should some states get a minimum wage increase and not everyone else, that's not fair.
- March 5, 2014 at 9:20 am(99) Stacy Augustine says:
Definitely raised! I'm from Mass . Everything else is higher in price why not our pay. It just doesn't match. It also boost moral with employees to want to work well for their company they work for.they won't feel like cramp doing their job while the big wigs are living high and the little guy lives pay check to pay check.
- March 6, 2014 at 4:39 pm(100) monica says:
Yes i believe minimum wage should go up, but my concern is employees that's been with companies for years and just started making 10dollars an hour and new employees cum in making the same that's not fair what are they gona do for the older employees.
- March 10, 2014 at 5:47 am(101) ryan r says:
It should not be raised by much, it'll make everything else increase so it'd be no different than now
- March 15, 2014 at 7:13 am(102) Raven says:
I am a single mom working in the childcare industry…I TAKE CARE of ur kids so u can go to work….I work my butt off for mim. Wage! I have to be on good stamps and have no health care. All of u telling me to get an education tel me this between working 40 hours a week, taking care of my kiddo and helping out my mom(who has epilepsy and works too) when do I have time! The wage should be raised for hard workers and lowered for government officials!
- March 22, 2014 at 4:24 am(103) Rougn says:
Increasing the minimum wage wont do anything. If you stand back and look at it from a third party point of view you can see exactly what will happen. Lets say Sony for this example: Each one of their employees is now being paid more to do the same job for the same output. Sony needs to make up the money lost through the pay raise for all its employees. What will Sony do? It will raise the price on all its products to compensate for the raise in cost to create the item. Now image every company doing this at once because every company needs to make up lost profits what will happen? The united costs of all goods increase and thus the minimum wage is still viewed as not enough because the cost of living increased and so they need to make more money to live. So nothing changed for the lower class citizen so then what about the other class? The upper class just nuked the middle and lower class so they are fine that leaves the middle class people: They did not get a pay increase for cost of living however the price of everything just increased that means percentage they just dropped in extra money. So what does all this combined equal out to? Taxes. Each person is getting paid more so are getting taxed more the goods cost more therefore the sales tax, for texas at least, is increased.
- March 26, 2014 at 12:21 am(104) rita wilson says:
yes it should be raised allcost of living raises all the timr I am a single mom of 3 an barely make it
- March 27, 2014 at 11:55 am(105) Bruno says:
I believe there should be a fair wage provided to the work and skill a person provides, but do not forget to include the ease of replacement. If minimum wage is pushed too high, companies,who's job is to increase profits, will find ways to replace high starting minimum wage workers (i.e. workers who are unskilled or provide little value to the company) with automatic machines, therefore reducing the number of available minimum wage positions. Example…once the wheel was evented, you no longer needed 10 men to lift 1000lbs to move from point A to point B, you could use just 2 or 3 to push.
- March 29, 2014 at 2:13 pm(106) debora says:
YES MINIMUM WAGE DOSE NEED TO BE RAISED actually it needs to be higher than $10.10 an for all workers because if you look at the prices of foods going up and milk going up to 7.00 a gallon in April, along with gas prices being so high, taxes have increased in most states. It is only logical that ever ones pay should go up. Even when it does go to $10.10 an hour people will still be in poverty. I work in fast food and let me tell you I can not make it on what I get paid every 2 weeks, not with rent, bills like car ins, light bill, water bill, phone and internet, and I have a special needs child that requires medical attention all the time and food is part of his medical care and he has to have medicine. When I heard that fast food workers were demanding for us to all get paid $15.00 an hour I was glad. If the President listens to them I won't have to worry so much I will a least be able to make ends meet. I am pretty much on my own I made the mistake of marrying someone that I can not count on So its pretty much up to me to keep things going, that's hard to do when you have little to no help. so yes by all that is right and good and decent yes raise minimum wage. And do not let anyone denture you Mr. President. Please make a stand for all of us who are mothers and care givers and foster parents to children in the United States. Signed an underpaid MOM.
- March 30, 2014 at 11:53 pm(107) Styles says:
The ignorance of those who claim to be smart. Minimum wage needs to go up because these greedy corporations are profiting in the Billions while paying their employees as little as the law allows. The cost of everything keep going up and no one can survive on $7.25 an hour without assistance. Everyone needs to live and most of the time the only jjobs people can get are the ones that don't want to pay. The government either needs to regulate expenditures from the people or up their pay, it is that simple. People are going to have kids whether they are rich or poor, it's reality so allow everyone the ability to survive. Corporations should not be allowed to take advantage of their employees to profit Billions of dollars ever so they need to pay the piper.
- April 8, 2014 at 12:43 pm(108) michael says:
The biggest winner in the fight to raise the minimum wage is the federal government. Instead of raising the minimum wage the government should change the minimum taxable income. Take a 1040EZ and do a return based on a single taxpayer with one exemption. Do it for one at $7.25 and one based on $10.10 per hour. The tax paid on the $7.25 is $508 and on $10.10 $1208. Washington nets an extra $700. Multiply by the number of minimum wage earners and see who wins. The government is once again playing us for suckers.
- April 9, 2014 at 1:34 pm(109) Elizabeth says:
Social security should be and must be increased. I struggle to keep up with the inflated economy. I live month to month and fear it will get worse.
- April 15, 2014 at 5:50 pm(110) Brittany says:
$10 an hour for minimum wage is a lot, considering most of the people that make minimum wage can't even spell it. If people are worried about SSI and whatnot being increased, how bout you instead use your free health insurance to go to the doctor and get to the health you need to be to be able to hold a job instead of getting your free money while wondering why the country is going broke?
Raising minimum wage and SSI will hurt everything. If you need more money, suck it up and get a job or work more hours. It's back breaking and hard, but that's what america was founded on.
Some of you make me disgusted to call myself american.
- April 18, 2014 at 4:21 pm(111) Nathaniel says:
No, there should not be a minimum wage increase. You're all a little touched in the head if you think raising the minimum wage helps the economy.
For example, a restaurant in California called Seafare Inn is being forced to close down because they cannot afford to pay their workers. They will be closed in June due to this recent increase in minimum wage, and the one said to be coming in 2016.
But I guess it's better to have a higher minimum wage but have no job, right?
- April 21, 2014 at 9:45 am(112) E says:
So what about people who went to school for better pay. Its not fair that people whobwent to school now have alot of student loans and people on minimum wage dont and almost make as much as you who did go to school. If they raise it they should also enforce tha all companies give the difdernece to every employer because they havnt everyrime its gone up a few cents
- April 21, 2014 at 9:52 pm(113) CG says:
minimum wages does need to go up…and most def. big business' need their reigns yanked in..they can afford to pay better than they do, they can afford to not abuse the system (as in only use temps, cut hours to the bone and use skeleton crews, many many issues) so that people in these "minimum wage" jobs can at least pay their bills…and everyone needs to remember, without these "peons" who work these crap jobs, you would have to eat at home, no where to shop, etc etc….and btw, i went to college not once, but twice, and due to the experience requirement, even for entry level positions, i am not yet in my field or anywhere remotely close to it…so education is fine, if you can become employed in your field…all i do know is, if folks don't have a little bit of money left over to spend after paying thier bills, then no money is being spent…so the economy continues to go down…


text:
The Uprise Books Project is building a website to provide banned and challenged books to underprivileged teens.
The Uprise Books Project is about getting banned and challenged books to teens throughout the United States. Or, rather, it will be... once our site is finished. That's sorta where this Kickstarter campaign comes in. We need you, concerned and generous Internet friends, to help cover the cost of designing and developing the website we'll use to get those books out.
When we're through, kids throughout the country will be able to use the site to browse through a selection of books that have been banned and/or challenged somewhere in the United States and add the ones that interest them to their personal Wish Lists. As long as they're between the ages of 13 and 18 and meet the income requirements, we'll do our best to fulfill their requests.
At the same time, folks concerned about little things like poverty, literacy and censorship will be able to search through some basic demographic data to find books they'd like to sponsor. For example, donors could contribute towards requests for particular banned books that touched them when they were younger, or books that were challenged because of specific content (racism, homosexuality, etc.). Others might be interested in requests from specific states. Doesn't matter. We'll make it easy to give in a ways that are meaningful to them.
OK, but why banned and challenged books?
Two reasons. First, we simply don't believe in censorship. As the American Library Association says, "Constitutionally protected speech cannot be suppressed solely to protect children or young adults from ideas or images a legislative body believes to be unsuitable for them." We think that parents have a right and an obligation to monitor their own child's access to literature they feel might be inappropriate, but they can't control another child's access. By banning and challenging books in schools and libraries, though, they do just that.
Second, and most importantly, we think that the idea that these texts have been banned and challenged might motivate these kids to actually read the things. A sixteen-year-old boy might not care that the Radcliffe Publishing Course called The Great Gatsby the best novel of the 20th century, but his inherent teen sense of rebellion might entice him to pick up a book challenged because of its "language and sexual references."
Sounds awesome, but why can't you just use <insert awesome free blogging/CMS platform here>? Why do you need so much money?
Don't get us wrong. We love open source software, and we're big fans of WordPress and Drupal. In fact, we're going to build a WordPress-driven site to spread information about the cause until the fully armed and operational version is ready, and we'll likely use a heavily customized Drupal install as the backbone of the Real Site. But...
Using existing plugins (and this seems to be the case whether we're talking about Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.), we can kludge together the some of the functionality that we need, but we'd end up stuck with slow manual processes that are prone to human error and don't scale to meet the needs of the huge number of kids we hope to serve. The site you're helping to develop will be capable of helping more kids get books, period. And with the site running on autopilot, we'll have more time to focus on fundraising, outreach, educational efforts, etc.
Also, the $10k goal is a little misleading. Yes, we could easily
spend that amount on design and custom coding to get as much of our
dream functionality as possible, but even if we reach our current goal, we won't
see the full amount. Kickstarter keeps a percentage (5%), Amazon gets a
cut (3-5%)... and that doesn't include the costs associated with the
awesome rewards you'll get for contributing (printing, shipping, etc.).
And let's face it. To say we have the design skills of blind, drunk chimps is an insult to inebriated primates everywhere. Seriously. If we tried to design something ourselves, we'd end up with a site that looked like this:
And our coding skills aren't much better... We need the help of professional developers who can make this better/stronger/faster.
Fine, fine. But what's in it for me?
We're pretty excited about the rewards we're able to offer in this campaign, thanks in no small part to some people who've proven they're just as interested in this cause as we are.
For example, we've partnered with some incredible artists who are creating original, banned book-inspired pieces just for this project. For as little as a $25 contribution, you can have your choice of one of the prints being created RIGHT NOW by Robin Kaplan, hopskotch SunDAY, Dane Ault and Ryan Pollard. We'll post updates here as the works come together, but you can check out each of their individual sites to find out why we're so excited to have them on board. We can't wait to see what they come up with.
We have a few very cool limited rewards, too. The first 10 people who make $35+ contributions will also receive a copy of Mike Russell's book, The Sabertooth Vampire: The Complete First Season. And our friends at Doubleday Press and ThinkGeek have kicked in a few items for the first three $200+ donors to fight over. (First come, first serve one those. Kickstarter's terms of service ruled out the Thunderdome.)
And of course, everyone who pitches in at least $5 will be recognized on the very Uprise Books Project website they helped turn into a reality.
Not yet. For now and the immediate future, the program is for kids in the United States only. As we grow, there's always the chance for international expansion, but the logistics are a bit daunting for a new organization. Different laws, etc. Eventually, though, we'd like to see that change.
We love libraries, and we'd love nothing more than for kids to spend more time in them. Unfortunately, that's just not possible for many of the teens we're trying to reach. As a recent RIF-commissioned study said:
"...children from poorer families have fewer books in their homes, have fewer books available in the school and classroom library, and live farther from public libraries than do children raised by middle- and upper-income families." (http://www.rif.org/documents/us/RIFandLearningPointMeta-FullReport.pdf)
So libraries are a great way for kids to get access to books (banned and otherwise), just not for the kids that can't get to them.
Our model overcomes some other hurdles, too. For instance, by shipping books directly to the kids, we give them one less excuse not to read. If you can bring the books to the kids instead of making the kids come to the books, you're removing one more barrier.
Also, remember that these kids likely don't have many personal possessions. A book that they've selected on their own, one that a completely stranger cared enough to buy for them... well, that's going to have some meaning and value beyond just the words on the pages.
Gah. Yes. An incredibly stupid typo that we didn't catch in time.
We actually have a support ticket open to help erase our stupid mistake (once someone pledges, you can't change it yourself). In the meantime, we've sentenced ourselves to writing "I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'" on the chalkboard eleventy million times.
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'
I will not misspell 'P-A-L-A-H-N-I-U-K.'...
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Immortality. Your name will be enshrined forever on the very website you helped build. Everyone who visits The Uprise Books Project website will know that YOU made it happen.Estimated delivery:
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51 backers
Enshrinement and a sweet Uprise Books Project bookmark. People who see you on the train or the bus will know that you not only stopped reading on a certain page, but that you care about things like poverty, literacy and censorship.Estimated delivery:
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Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of dainty 5x7 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description.Estimated delivery:
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10 backers All gone!
Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of good-sized 8x10 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description. AND... the first 10 people who contribute at this level will also receive a copy of Mike Russell's book, The Sabertooth Vampire: The Complete First Season.Estimated delivery:
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Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of good-sized 8x10 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description.Estimated delivery:
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28 backers
Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of pretty darn big 12x18 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description.Estimated delivery:
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4 backers Limited (21 left of 25)
All the rewards from the $50 level, PLUS a signed copy of Ellen Hopkins's New York Time bestseller, Crank!Estimated delivery:
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10 backers
Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of freakin' huge 20x30 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description.Estimated delivery:
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2 backers
In addition to the $100 rewards, you'll receive a copy of "Americus," the new-ish graphic novel from MK Reed and Jonathan Hill! Fittingly enough, "Americus" tells the tale of Neal Barton, a small-town kid dealing with the fact that a group of locals want to ban his favorite fantasy series. See the connection? And because you'll no doubt want to stay up all night reading "Americus" once you crack it open, we're including another reward at this level: one 750 ml bottle of Black Blood of the Earth (aka "Weapons Grade Coffee"). Quite possibly the work of the Devil himself, this concoction contains roughly 40x as much caffeine as your typical cup o' joe. You can read all about on the Funranium Labs site: http://www.funraniumlabs.com/the-black-blood-of-the-earth/bbote-faq/Estimated delivery:
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Enshrinement, a bookmark, and your choice of freakin' huge 20x30 original, banned book-inspired prints created by the amazing artists mentioned over in the project description. PLUS... the first three contributors at this level will receive either the complete Chuck Palahniuk collection (contributed by Doubleday Press), a Tauntaun Sleeping bag (provided by ThinkGeek), or an iCADE (again, generously donated by ThinkGeek). (One of each available. First person gets first choice, second person gets to pick one of the other two, third person just better be happy with what they get.)Estimated delivery:
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Enshrinement, a bookmark, and ALL FOUR of the pretty darn big 12x18 original, banned book-inspired prints.Estimated delivery:
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Enshrinement, a bookmark, and ALL FOUR of the freakin' huge 20x30 original, banned book-inspired prints.Estimated delivery:
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2 backers
All the rewards from the $500 level, PLUS a Kindle Fire with copies of Ellen Hopkins's Crank Trilogy, Perfect and her latest novel, Triangles!Estimated delivery:
Funding period
- (42 days)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Founders & Individualism
The Founders & Individualism
As a fellow law professor and Catholic, I agree with many of the things Mary Ann Glendon says about modern law, modern individualism, and the contemporary Catholic Church's teachings in relation to both (Looking for Persons' in the Law, December 2006). But I disagree strongly with her to the extent that she traces the hyper-libertarian, ultra-individualist tendencies in modern America back to Locke and the American founders.
Glendon portrays founding America's political culture as an uneasy mix of religious local cultures (grounded in families and tight-knit communities) and a rationalistic and individualizing national order (with greater emphasis on the dangers human beings pose to one another than on the human capacity for cooperative living). This portrait simply does not pan out as a matter of history. At least through the New Deal, the national government did not hesitate to legislate on morality in the rare cases when the Constitution allowed it to do so. The Confederation Congress and the first constitutional Congress both established schools in the Northwest Territories specifically to promote religion and morality. After the Civil War, Congress used its territorial powers to condition Utah's eligibility for statehood on its agreeing to extinguish Mormon polygamy. Also, after the Civil War, as the American economy grew, Congress used its interstate-commerce powers not only to regulate railroads but also to legislate interstate commerce in alcohol, lottery tickets, and prostitutes.
Nor can Glendon's portrait be sustained with The Federalist Papers . If one reads The Federalist in its entirety, Publius balances his discussion of faction with subtle but comprehensive appeals to man's social and political sides. Rivaling Tocqueville, No. 49 diagnoses how comprehensive political opinions shape and steady the soul of the democratic citizen. Papers 52 through 84 appeal to the specific and rare political virtues appropriate to particular offices in the new Constitution. When these passages are considered, No. 52's appeal to republican virtues is nowhere near as anomalous as Glendon makes it seem. Publius soberly worried that man's vicious tendencies make republican self-government next to impossible. (We are now relearning the reasons why in Iraq.) But it is not fair to interpret Publius' sobriety as libertine economic individualism.
As for Locke, his thought simply cannot be reduced to a series of vivid pictures of man as free and solitary in an imaginary state of nature.' This is not Locke; it is either an exaggeration of the sections of the Second Treatise on property or a simplified version of Rousseau and the Romantics' criticisms of Locke. Locke portrays family life very intimately in Some Thoughts Concerning Education . He strongly defends Christianity (on moral grounds, not theological, to be sure) and its role in moral formation in On the Reasonableness of Christianity . Even in Two Treatises , Locke is not afraid to use the law as a tool of moral formation: At one point, he recognizes that law, in its true notion, is not so much the limitation, as the direction of a free and intelligent agent to his proper interest.
Rather than take my word for it, interested readers should read Locke's writings in their entirety and then consult secondary scholarship by Nathan Tarcov, Peter Myers, and Michael Zuckert.
Glendon's portraits are especially unfortunate because they are counterproductive. Locke and the founders could be powerful resources against the radical individualism that Glendon and I both deplore. Inasmuch as Glendon is a labor lawyer, I can understand some of her hostility. It makes it easier to support New Deal and European welfare laws if such laws seem a necessary communitarian response against Locke and the founders' economic selfishness. But inasmuch as Glendon is a Catholic public intellectual, I am at a loss to understand why she makes Locke and the American founders into enemies in today's culture wars.
Eric R. Claeys
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis, Missouri
Mary Ann Glendon replies:
Mary Ann Glendon replies:
I would not disagree with much of what Professor Claeys says about the writings of Locke and the authors of The Federalist . However, what has migrated from those sources into law, and from law into contemporary popular culture, was not the thought of Locke, Madison, Hamilton, and Jay in all its richness and complexity. Nor do I blame political theorists of a bygone day for the hyper-individualistic tendencies in modern law and culture. Obviously, there are many factors at work in determining which themes of great thinkers are lifted up in the law and which are neglected over the course of time. (Whatever law is after, it is not the whole story.) My concern, as I wrote in the article, is that in our pluralistic society law increasingly promotes ultra-individualistic ideas that are not conducive to the maintenance of a free republic.
Since Professor Claeys is under the impression that I am a labor lawyer (I did practice in that area many years ago), I should probably add, for the record, that I teach and write in the fields of property, human-rights, and comparative law, with emphasis on the migration of legal ideas and the intersections between political theory and law.
Reforming Natural Law
J. Daryl Charles' analysis of Protestants and natural law is spot-on (Protestants and Natural Law, December 2006). I conducted a thorough review of John Calvin's writings on natural law and, like Charles, concluded that Calvin made free use of the classical natural-law tradition with, however, a clear acknowledgment of the limits of natural-law practice among its non-Christian proponents. And I also concur that, for Calvin, the natural law, implanted by God in human nature (and largely tracking the Decalogue), combined with the faculty of conscience, inescapably reveals the divine order and thus renders humanity liable to God's judgment.
Charles does an excellent job of locating the errors of Barthians and contemporary radical Anabaptists toward natural law. Yet, whether owing to his limited space or their limited numbers, he neglects to confront another orthodox party for whom the natural law is also anathema-the theonomists. Emphasizing the antithetical approach of Cornelius Van Til popularized among conservative Presbyterians in the decades following the Second World War, but with seemingly little regard for Van Til's balancing comments, epigones such as Rousas Rushdoony, Gary North, and Greg Bahnsen held that natural law was nothing more than a capitulation to the spirit of human autonomy. Only God's law, derived primarily from the Mosaic covenant rather than the Sermon on the Mount, could provide a God-centered (theonomic) foundation for Christian ethics and politics.
The error of the theonomists is not that they give too little regard to law as part of the created order but that they truncate the sources of God's law. Disregarding Scripture's own references to sources of knowledge outside its corpus (including knowledge of the law), the theonomists try to erect a platform for ethics on only one of God's forms of revelation. Calvin would not have agreed. General (or natural) revelation is as much from God as is special (or biblical) revelation.
Yet Calvin would have agreed with the theonomists that God's enscripturated revelation is a valid source of law even in the public square. Christians today must not place all their eggs in the natural-law basket. If, as the saying goes, all truth is God's truth, then it is equally true that all God's truth is true.
C. Scott Pryor
Regent University School of Law
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Karl Barth argued vehemently for a rejection of natural-law thinking, writes J. Daryl Charles, and was therefore an example of those who answer incorrectly the question whether human beings can be held accountable for their actions.
When that issue of FIRST THINGS arrived, I had been reading Barth's The Christian Life , which collects final fragments of Church Dogmatics that Barth did not complete owing to his retirement and death. In section 77, Barth acknowledges that God is well known in nature, citing Romans 1:19. He is already as its Creator the God who is objectively well known.
Barth admittedly draws a line. These impressions should not be generalized and systematized along the lines of natural theology, but when they lay hold of us with serious force, they cannot be denied. People have a choice to make: whether or not to acknowledge subjectively the God who in nature is objectively known. Man, not God, is at fault if a subjective knowledge of God on man's side does not correspond to God's objective knowledge.
Barth thus seems to me less vehement, and more ready to hold people accountable, than Charles characterized him as being.
Andy Saylor
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
Professor Charles brings out the continuation of natural-law thinking by Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, but one gets the impression from his article that Protestant natural-law theory ended in the era of late Scholasticism. Hugo Grotius is briefly mentioned, but Richard Cumberland and Samuel Pufendorf also made considerable worthwhile contributions to natural law during the seventeenth century. The definitive break in natural-law thinking by twentieth-century theologians such as Barth, Hauerwas, Yoder, and others was also preceded by significant philosophical breaks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For one thing, interest in natural law began to morph into consideration of natural rights in the writings of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.
And, prior to Kant's very nuanced portrayal of natural law and the self-legislating aspect of morality, which Charles mentions, the ethical system of David Hume threw a wrench into traditional ethics in general, decreeing that no ought can ever be deduced from an is (and natural law, being rooted in human nature, qualifies as an is). Various misapprehensions about natural law are gradually being overcome in contemporary ethics, and it is gratifying to see Protestants gradually joining forces in promoting what has unnecessarily been tagged as a Catholic fixation.
Howard P. Kainz
Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Daryl Charles replies:
Daryl Charles replies:
I am grateful for Prof. Pryor's kind words. What he, too, discovered in Calvin, I would venture to guess, would shock most Protestants and, I dare say, many Reformed folk. But he is correct, as Stephen Grabill's most recent book, The Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics, makes amply clear.
I have no worries that Christians today will place all their eggs in the natural-law basket; among the theologically orthodox, I have not yet encountered such. What not infrequently does need pruning-or rebuking-is a secularist or naturalist perversion of natural-law thinking, which bears little resemblance to its authentic antecedent as found in the historic Christian tradition.
Upon reading Mr. Saylor's opening remark, one might get the impression that I view Barth as morally indifferent, obtuse, or imperceptive. This is certainly not the case. What is at issue, at least with Barth and his followers, is how we are held morally accountable as human beings. Saylor does well to direct us to Barth himself. In Church Dogmatics , Barth writes that any theological or philosophical concept that is rooted in nature is to be viewed as not merely deficient but also heretical and therefore a radical departure from Christian faith. Likewise, any moral theology that tries to deny or obscure its derivation from God's command and set up independent principles in the face of autonomies and heteronomies and that aims to undertake the replacement of the command of the grace of God by a sovereign humanism or even barbarism is to be utterly rejected. Whether Barth was burying the wrong corpse is worth debating. Whether Barth is vehement or casual in his rejection of the natural law, I leave for the reader to decide.
But lest readers think that I underappreciate Barth, permit me to say that I have high esteem for this Barmen confessor who against the Hitler regime confessed with fresh devotion historic Christian commitments in the light of their immediate political situation (from the introduction to The Church and the War ). Because he courageously stood his ground, not for nothing was he removed from his university teaching post in the year following the Barmen synod.
I am appreciative that Prof. Kainz would spotlight Grotius, Cumberland, and Pufendorf. In the end, alas, I was operating under editorial constraints of space and therefore chose to place emphasis on sixteenth- and twentieth-century Protestant thinkers, given their relative influence. The philosophical break that preceded the nineteenth century of which Kainz speaks is well characterized by Barth in Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century , as I attempted, albeit in meager fashion, to show.
With Kainz I am encouraged at the prospect for ecumenical dialogue on the natural law. As both John Paul II and Lutheran theologian Carl Braaten have well observed, moral relativism combines with political activism in our day to sabotage the very metaphysical foundations on which our culture rests, preparing the way for the moral collapse of social institutions that we have taken for granted. For this reason, then, we are constrained to agree with John Courtney Murray that, as a metaphysical concept, the natural law is timeless and therefore, in our own day, quite timely.
Left-Behind Lutherans
In assessing Pastor Frank Senn's apologia, I'll Stay Here, Where I Stand (While We're At It, December 2006), Richard John Neuhaus argues that, in accounting for his decision to stay put, Senn is implausibly elevating the ecclesiological status of a reforming movement that transmogrified in some places into established churches. While Neuhaus honors the sincerity of Pastor Senn and others similarly situated, he regards Senn's argument as bogus. Far better it would have been to cite the family and other obligations [that] quite rightly enter into [one's] reflections about whether or not to become Catholic—obligations of an essentially nontheological character.
Neuhaus ignores the one obligation that cannot be relegated to the category of the miscellaneous other: the obligation of the shepherd to his flock, an obligation solemnly undertaken at one's ordination into the Holy Ministry. Far from being just one of many other, however valid, reasons, this is of the very essence of the Church.
Pastor Senn's fidelity to this obligation is exemplary in both his ministry in Evanston, Illinois, and his ministry to us who, with him, have subscribed to the Rule of the Society of the Holy Trinity. Pastor Senn's ministry embodies the fullness of the church where Christ gives himself ever and again to his own.
I do not presume to judge the decision of Phillip Max Johnson to leave his devoted flock in Jersey City and his equally devoted brothers and sisters in the Society of the Holy Trinity to convert to the Catholic Church. However, I do not think it an overstatement to say that we are all deeply saddened and that our sense of loss will not soon depart. Meanwhile, it would be nice if Neuhaus would leave off chiding us left-behind Lutherans for our defective ecclesiology. We heard you the first time, Richard, and again, and again, and . . .
Richard J. Niebanck, S.T.S.
Delhi, New York
Martyrology Today
I was pleased, as I always am, to be instructively rebuked by Fr. Neuhaus in the December issue of FIRST THINGS (While We're At It). But can he really mean it when he says that Christians should not be ready to shed their own blood in the service of, and as a sign of solidarity with, other Christians? Does he forget the martyrs?
Among the points I was making, ineptly no doubt, in the Christian Century essay he criticized was that martyrdom is a properly ecclesial death and that willingness to accept it is a properly ecclesial act. This means (among other things) that willingness to shed one's own blood in this way is a sign of deep solidarity with other Christians, past and present, living and dead. We American Christians, I argued, have been taught to make our fellow citizens the only proper recipients of such a sign, and thus to displace martyrdom from Church to state. Surely Fr. Neuhaus would agree that something is wrong here?
Paul J. Griffiths
Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Catholic Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
RJN replies
Prof. Griffiths' letter marvelously clarifies what he intended to say in his reflection on the letter of President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Of course, we are in complete agreement in honoring martyrs who place their allegiance to Christ and his Church above the demands of the state.


text:
The Short-Term Society, A study in the Long-Term Problems of Political and Economic Development in Iran
A lecture by Homayoun Katouzian, University of Oxford
Published: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Homayoun Katouzian is a social scientist, historian, literary critic and poet. He is the Iran Heritage Research Fellow, St. Antony's College and Member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and editor of Iranian Studies, Journal of the International Society for Iranian Studies. He obtained all his university degrees in England and became Lecturer in Economics at the University of Leeds, 1968-69, and Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer) in Economics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, 1969-1986. He was a fellow of the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Sept.-December 2001, Visiting Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, Spring 1990, Visiting Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1985, Economic Consultant, UNCTAD, UN, Geneva, 1982, Visiting Iranian Fellow, St. Antony's College, Oxford, 1975-76, etc. He has published widely in English, Persian and other languages. His most recent books in English are as follows:
- The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran Iran in the 21st Century (co-ed with Hossein Shahidi, 2008)
- Sadeq Hedayat: His Work and His Wondrous World (ed., 2008)
- Iranian History and Politics: The Dialectic of State and Society (2007)
- Sa'di, the Poet of Life, Love and Compassion (2006)
- State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Rise of the Pahlavis (2006)
For more info please contact:
Mona Ramezani
(310) 825-1181


text:
Head of PR - Japan
The Head of PR Public Relations, Japan, will manage all communications activities in Japan. This position will be charged with managing local agencies, developing and implementing both global and local PR initiatives for Japan. This person will report to the APAC Head of Communications (based in Sydney) and work closely with the Director of Japan (based in Tokyo).
- Drive broad mainstream consumer awareness and user acquisition through innovative consumer PR and publicity campaigns.
- Define Spotify's role in the music ecosystem by engaging industry journalists, executives, artists and managers through multifaceted PR campaigns and events.
- Work in close coordination with other functions, including marketing, label relations, artist relations, content, analytics, ad sales, customer service, user comms etc.
- Executive media training, presentation development and speech writing.
- 5-10 years relevant experience in consumer PR, digital media, entertainment and music industry PR, or tech industry.
- Motivated self-starter.
- A deep love of music and technology.
- Proven ability to create wide-ranging consumer PR campaigns resulting in successful customer acquisition.
- Experience working with influencers or influencer PR is meriting.
- Strong agency management skills.
- Ability to multitask and work in a hectic and extremely fast moving industry & environment.
- Ability to look at long-term challenges differently and come up with creative solutions.
- Fluent in English and Japanese.
*Please submit resume in English only.*


text:
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A young page, who aspires to be a knight in King Arthur's court, accepts the challenge of battling a warrior whose deadly weapons include magic.


text:
You can certainly do this. When I installed a jetted tub in my bathroom, I wall mounted the spout about 1/3 the way from the front of the tub on the long wall, ran 2 shower heads, and put the handles on the long side wall(where I could add more hot without having to move), about 2/3 from the front.
It will be tougher to find a deck mount spout with a wall mount handle, than one that is all deck mount or one that is all wall mount. If you do not have a shower, there is no requirement for a pressure balance valve.
The Pipewench


text:
I have just installed ubuntu 12.10 and everything is running fine but there are a few things that I am not sure about.
In computer, when I click on the hard disk it says "unable to mount location - can't mount file" and when I right click it the type/size/volume/accessed/modified are all unknown. However everything seems to be partitioned correctly.
Also, when I right click file system properties it lists the correct amount of free space, but volume is unknown and the contents reads as 140 TB.
As I said everything is working fine but are these issues I should be concerned about?
matthew@matthew-550P5C-550P7C:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 912G 3.2G 862G 1% /
udev 2.9G 8.0K 2.9G 1% /dev
tmpfs 1.2G 824K 1.2G 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 2.9G 84K 2.9G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 36K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 94M 123K 94M 1% /boot/efi
matthew@matthew-550P5C-550P7C:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for matthew:
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x50960a65
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.


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(Running Time: 17 min. 32 sec.)
How Much is Free is the debut album from multi-instrumentalist Johnny Freeman. This is a work of uncompromising, funky pop and eclectic R&B that touches on acoustic, jazz, blues and hip-hop. Lyrically steeped in introspection, the project contains therapeutic as well as entertainment benefits.
Sponsored by: Sunlight of the Spirit Music